Flooded central air conditioning system

ABSTRACT

A flooded central air conditioning system includes a compressor, condenser, external oil separator, low pressure circulation barrel and spiral evaporator, refrigerant outlet of compressor connects to refrigerant inlet of external oil separator, whose refrigerant outlet connects to condenser inlet, whose outlet connects to refrigerant inlet of low pressure circulation barrel, whose refrigerant outlet connects to refrigerant inlet of spiral evaporator, whose refrigerant outlet connects to gas inlet of low pressure circulation barrel, whose gas outlet connects to refrigerant inlet of compressor. The present invention provides a flooded central air conditioning system, which owns advantages of energy saving and better refrigeration as ammonia refrigerant, safety and convenience as Freon refrigerant, has greatly improved the refrigeration efficient of refrigeration system using Freon as refrigerant. Integrated energy efficiency is significantly improved, and energy consumption greatly reduced. The central air conditioning system described owns pretty strong market competitiveness.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201510743861.3, filed on Nov. 5, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of central air conditioning technology, and more particularly, to a flooded central air conditioning system.

BACKGROUND

Currently, there are two kinds of refrigeration systems mainly used in the refrigeration industry, divided by refrigerants, including a Freon refrigeration system and an ammonia refrigeration system, wherein, comparing to the Freon refrigeration system, the ammonia refrigeration system owns a better refrigeration effect and it is energy saving in refrigeration, while the Freon system owns a plurality of characters including safety, reliability and convenience. Due to the AC systems using the two refrigerants have different settings, they are not universal. Therefore, the existing central air conditioning systems can not simultaneously achieve both effects of energy saving and safety.

Therefore, the current technology needs to be improved and developed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to the above described defects, the purpose of the present invention is providing a flooded central air conditioning system, in order to solve the problem in the prior art, that an existing central air conditioning system may not achieve both effects of energy saving and safety.

In order to achieve the above mentioned goals, the technical solution of the present invention to solve the technical problem is as follows:

a flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, it includes a compressor, a condenser, an external oil separator, a low pressure circulation barrel and a spiral evaporator, a refrigerant outlet of the said compressor connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said external oil separator, a refrigerant outlet of the said external oil separator connects to an inlet of the condenser, an outlet of the said condenser connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel, a refrigerant outlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said spiral evaporator, a refrigerant outlet of the said spiral evaporator connects to a gas inlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel, a gas outlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said compressor; a refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor goes into the condenser for condensing after separated by the external oil separator, and after condensing, the refrigerant enters the low pressure circulation barrel and further enters the spiral evaporator for heat absorptions, and followed by the heated refrigerant going back to the low pressure circulation barrel from the spiral evaporator through the gas inlet, then the refrigerant gas in the said the low pressure circulation barrel enters the compressor through the gas outlet, and forming a next circulation.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the said refrigerant is Freon.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, a position of the said low pressure circulation barrel is arranged higher than that of the spiral evaporator, in order to make the refrigerant in the low pressure circulation barrel enter the spiral evaporator through the refrigerant outlet under gravity.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the height difference between the said low pressure circulation barrel and the said spiral evaporator is 1.2-2.1 meters.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, it further includes an oil storage tank, applied to storing oil, and an oil outlet of the said external oil separator connects to an inlet of the oil storage tank, while an oil outlet in the said oil storage tank connects to an oil inlet of the compressor.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, it further includes a liquid storage tank, applied to storing the refrigerant, an inlet of the said liquid storage tank connects to the outlet of the condenser, while an outlet of the said liquid storage tank connects to the refrigerant inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the said condenser includes a high temperature condenser and a low temperature condenser, which are sequentially arranged, while the refrigerant from the said refrigerant outlet of the external oil separator enters the liquid storage tank after getting condensed by the high temperature condenser and the low temperature condenser sequentially.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the said spiral evaporator includes an inlet tube for refrigerant entry and an outlet tube for refrigerant exit, between the said inlet tube and outlet tube, a spiral calandria is arranged side by side, both ends of the spiral calandria connect to the inlet tube and outlet tube respectively, wherein, a separation board is arranged in the said inlet tube, applied to separating the refrigerant and the oil, which is arranged following the radius of the inlet tube and separating the inlet tube into an upper space and a lower space, which are interconnected.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the said inlet tube has a set of oil returning pipes arranged, and connects to the compressor through the said oil returning pipes, an ejector pump is arranged in the oil returning pipes, and the oil deposited in the input tube enters the compressor following the oil returning pipes through the ejector pump.

The said flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the said compressor is arranged more than one, a circulation loop of each compressor is connected in parallel.

Benefits: the present invention provides a flooded central air conditioning system, which has taken a plurality of advantages including an energy saving and better refrigeration effect of ammonia refrigerant, as well as a safety and convenience effect of Freon refrigerant, which has also greatly improved the refrigeration efficiency of the refrigeration system using Freon as the refrigerant. The integrated energy efficiency has been significantly improved, while the energy consumption has been greatly reduced, therefore, the central air conditioning system described in the present invention owns a pretty strong market competitiveness.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture diagram of the flooded central air conditioning system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of the spiral evaporator in an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a flooded central air conditioning system, in order to make the purpose, technical solution and the advantages of the present invention clearer and more explicit, further detailed descriptions of the present invention are stated here, referencing to the attached drawings and some embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the detailed embodiments of the invention described here are used to explain the present invention only, instead of limiting the present invention.

A flooded central air conditioning system as shown in FIG. 1, wherein, it includes a compressor 100, a condenser, an external oil separator 300, a low pressure circulation barrel 400 and a spiral evaporator 500, a refrigerant outlet of the said compressor 100 connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said external oil separator 300, a refrigerant outlet of the said external oil separator 300 connects to an inlet of the said condenser, an outlet of the said condenser connects to a refrigerant inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel 400, a refrigerant outlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel 400 connects to a refrigerant inlet 511 of the said spiral evaporator 500, a refrigerant outlet 521 of the said spiral evaporator 500 connects to a gas inlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel 400, a gas outlet of the said low pressure circulation barrel 400 connects to a refrigerant inlet of the said compressor 100; a refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor goes into the condenser for condensing after separated by the external oil separator, and after condensing, the refrigerant enters the low pressure circulation barrel and further flows into the spiral evaporator for heat absorptions, and followed by going back to the low pressure circulation barrel from the spiral evaporator through the gas inlet, then the refrigerant gas in the said low pressure circulation barrel enters the compressor through the gas outlet, before forming a next circulation.

Specifically, the said flooded central air conditioning system further includes an oil storage tank 600, applied to storing oil, and an oil outlet in the said external oil separator connects to an inlet of the oil storage tank, while an oil outlet in the said oil storage tank connects to an oil inlet of the compressor. Also, the said flooded central air conditioning system further includes a liquid storage tank 700, applied to storing the refrigerant, an inlet of the said liquid storage tank connects to the outlet of the condenser, an outlet of the said liquid storage tank connects to the refrigerant inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel. The condenser includes sequentially arranged a high temperature condenser 210 and a low temperature condenser 220, refrigerant from the said refrigerant outlet of the external oil separator enters the liquid storage tank through the high temperature condenser and the low temperature condenser sequentially. The external oil separator may separate the mixed oil gas after passing through the compressor, and the separated oil returns to the oil storage tank for the compressor to use, while the separated refrigerant gas enters the high temperature condenser and the low temperature condenser sequentially, before getting condensed and cooled. Both the said high temperature and low temperature condensers are cooled down by a cold water condenser (not shown in FIGS. 1-2.). The refrigerant enters the liquid storage tank for storage after passing through the condenser, and it may enter the low pressure circulation barrel and take part in the cooling cycle anytime.

Wherein, the refrigerant used in the central air conditioning system provided in the present invention is Freon. And, a position of the said low pressure circulation barrel is arranged higher than that of the spiral evaporator, in order to make the refrigerant in the low pressure circulation barrel enter the spiral evaporator through the refrigerant outlet under gravity. The purpose of the low pressure circulation barrel is applied to supplying the refrigerant sent from the liquid storage tank to the spiral evaporator for heat absorption under gravity, after a further cooling of the refrigerant through the absorption of the compressor, a gas after heat absorption goes back to the low pressure circulation barrel and subjects a further separation of gas and liquid, and the gas after separation will enter the compressor again, therefore, it ensures avoiding frost back in the compressor. The central air conditioning system provided in the present invention has changed a conventional liquid supplying method for the Freon refrigeration system, it takes a gravity driven liquid supplying method, instead of a conventional method of expansion valve supplying gas for cooling, therefore, it solves the problem of unbalanced cooling distribution in a cooling pipe caused by adopting the expansion valve together with a distributor, in a conventional Freon cooling system. The spiral evaporator in the present invention may achieve a fully balanced cooling process; therefore, it has greatly improved the Freon cooling efficiency, and saved the electric power.

Preferably, the height difference between the said low pressure circulation barrel and the spiral evaporator is 1.2-2.1 meters. Under such a height difference, it may ensure the evaporator work at a high efficiency, and own a highest heat exchange efficiency, meanwhile, it may also ensure the refrigerant circulating and flowing back on time, therefore, it ensures the compressor working normally and safely.

The flooded central air conditioning system provided in the present invention, further includes a controlling system, the said controlling system is a PLC controlling system, it monitors the whole system and automatically adjusts the work of the system, according to a detected result, the said controlling system connects to a plurality of magnetic induced level gauges, magnetic induced level switches and float level switches in the low pressure circulation barrel, the liquid storage tank, the oil storage tank and else, so as to achieve a real time monitoring of a running status of the system, also, it may adjust the system effectively according to the feedback data, thus ensures the system in a safe and reliable state.

The refrigeration cycle may be simply summarized as follows: after a central air conditioning system is started, refrigerant in the liquid storage tank enters the low pressure circulation barrel, and enters the spiral evaporator for heat exchange before being converted into a gas, following the tubes under gravity, the refrigerant goes back to the low pressure circulation barrel after finishing heat exchanges, now, in the low pressure circulation barrel, there is refrigerant existing in both liquid state and gas state above, the refrigerant in the gas state is then sucked into the compressor and gets compressed before entering the external oil separator, which separates oil from the gas mixture, and the gas then goes into the condenser and gets cooled down, before being condensed into liquids, followed by entering the liquid storage tank and stored there until the next cooling cycle starts, while the oil separated by the external oil separator flows back to the oil storage tank, which connects to the compressor and makes oil up for the compressor any time. During a cooling cycle, due to the process of the refrigerant entering the spiral evaporator from the low pressure circulation barrel is done by gravity instead of any conventional pumping way, thus the present invention saves the energy consumption, also, the method of liquid supplying to the spiral evaporator by gravity makes the evaporator in the spiral evaporator always in a “full” state, which is able to make it work in a high-loaded state, thus it has a high heat exchange efficiency, which makes the cooling efficiency of the cooling system provided in the present invention much higher than that of a conventional Freon cooling system.

In a preferred embodiment, the said compressor may be arranged more than one, and a circulation loop of each compressor is connected in parallel. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, there are two compressors arranged in the system, circulation loops of the two compressors are connected in parallel, that is, the refrigerant outlet of each compressor is connected to the refrigerant inlet of the external oil separator respectively, the refrigerant inlet of each compressor connects to the gas outlet of the low pressure circulation barrel respectively, connecting the circulation loop of each compressor in parallel, together with a separated liquid supplying format of the liquid supplying system, has made the central air conditioning system in the present invention be able to turn on and off automatically and timely, while ensuring a temperature for use in the cold water tank, therefore, it makes the system be able to automatically select the compressors needed to be started according to the workload, achieving accurate deployment, without having to start all compressors to work each time when the system starts, thus it achieves a purpose of energy savings, while it also extends the usage life of related devices in the system.

Of course, in each gas transmission tube connecting the said low pressure circulation barrel and each compressor, there is a returning gas filter 800 arranged, applied to filtrate the gas.

The spiral evaporator provided in the present invention, comparing to a conventional horizontal evaporator using Freon, or a method using horizontal cooling tube, it has greatly speeded up the evaporation of Freon, and improved the heat exchange rate, thus it has improved the cooling efficiency, and lowered the energy consumption. Also, the liquid supplying method of the flooded central air conditioning system provided in the present invention ensures the requirements for safety and reliability of Freon.

In a preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the spiral evaporator used in the flooded central air conditioning system provided in the present invention, includes an inlet tube 510 with a refrigerant inlet 511 and an outlet tube 520 with a refrigerant outlet 521, between the said inlet tube 510 and outlet tube 520, a spiral calandria 530 is arranged side by side, both ends of the spiral calandria 530 connect to the inlet tube 510 and outlet tube 520 respectively, wherein, a separation board 540 is arranged in the said inlet tube 510, applied to separating the refrigerant and the oil, which is arranged radically in the inlet tube 510, and separating the inlet tube 510 into an upper space and a lower space, which are interconnected.

Specifically, the said inlet tube has a set of oil returning pipes 550 arranged, it connects to the compressor through the said oil returning pipes 550, an ejector pump is arranged in the oil returning pipes 550, which converts a pressure energy of a high-pressure gas into a kinetic energy, and makes a speed of a high-pressure gas flow reach a pretty high value after passing through a nozzle, when areas around the fluid own a negative pressure, which sucks in the low pressure fluid around, then both fluid streams are mixed up before entering an expansion nozzle, and converted into the pressure energy, before finishing the whole ejection action. The oil deposited in the said inlet tube enters the compressor following the oil returning pipes through the ejector pump.

Further, the said separation board is fixed through both ends connecting with both ends of the inlet tube, the said separation board is placed horizontally, a gap for both upper and lower spaces connection is formed between two sides of the separation board and the inlet tube wall.

When the central air conditioning provided in the present invention is working, due to the original process of supplying from upside and sucking in lower side is changed, following the refrigerant keeping entering the spiral evaporator, more and more oil is deposited in the spiral evaporator, under the separation of the separation board, oil will flow into the lower part of the inlet tube following gaps at both sides of the separation board, thus, in the inlet tube of the spiral evaporator, oil occupies a more and more ratio in the lower part of the separation board, under the control of the controlling system, the ejector pump starts and sucks oil in the lower part of the separation board to the oil returning pipes 550, oil flows back to the compressor following the oil returning pipes and joins the cooling cycle, while due to the spiral evaporator having eliminated the defects of oil deposition, it has also ensured that the central air conditioning system in the present invention maintains a pretty good cooling efficiency, while overcoming the defects of a conventional cooling system requiring keeping oil replenishing and making the operation costs of the system increase, it has greatly improved the running reliability of the system.

Benefits: the present invention provides a flooded central air conditioning system, which has taken a plurality of advantages including an ammonia refrigerant of energy saving and better refrigeration effect, as well as a Freon refrigerant of safety and convenience, which has also greatly improved the refrigeration efficient of the refrigeration system using Freon as the refrigerant. The integrated energy efficiency has been significantly improved, while the energy consumption has been greatly reduced, as well as the operation cost, therefore, the central air conditioning system described in the present invention owns a pretty strong market competitiveness.

It should be understood that, the application of the present invention is not limited to the above examples listed. Ordinary technical personnel in this field can improve or change the applications according to the above descriptions, all of these improvements and transforms should belong to the scope of protection in the appended claims of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A flooded central air conditioning system, wherein, the system comprises a compressor, a condenser, an external oil separator, a low pressure circulation barrel and a spiral evaporator, a refrigerant outlet of the compressor connects to a refrigerant inlet of the external oil separator, a refrigerant outlet of the external oil separator connects to an inlet of the condenser, an outlet of the condenser connects to a refrigerant inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel, a refrigerant outlet of the low pressure circulation barrel connects to a refrigerant inlet of the spiral evaporator, a refrigerant outlet of the spiral evaporator connects to a gas inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel, a gas outlet of the low pressure circulation barrel connects to a refrigerant inlet of the compressor; a refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor goes into the condenser for condensing after separated by the external oil separator, and after condensing, the refrigerant enters the low pressure circulation barrel and further enters the spiral evaporator for heat absorptions, and followed by the heated refrigerant going back to the low pressure circulation barrel from the spiral evaporator through the gas inlet, then the refrigerant gas in the the low pressure circulation barrel enters the compressor through the gas outlet, and forming a next circulation.
 2. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 1, wherein, the refrigerant is Freon.
 3. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 2, wherein, a position of the low pressure circulation barrel is arranged higher than that of the spiral evaporator, in order to make the refrigerant in the low pressure circulation barrel enter the spiral evaporator through the refrigerant outlet under gravity.
 4. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 3, wherein, the height difference between the low pressure circulation barrel and the spiral evaporator is 1.2-2.1 meters.
 5. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 2, wherein, the system further comprises an oil storage tank, applied to storing oil, and an oil outlet of the external oil separator connects to an inlet of the oil storage tank, while an oil outlet in the oil storage tank connects to an oil inlet of the compressor.
 6. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 2, wherein, the system further comprises a liquid storage tank, applied to storing the refrigerant, an inlet of the liquid storage tank connects to the outlet of the condenser, while an outlet of the liquid storage tank connects to the refrigerant inlet of the low pressure circulation barrel.
 7. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 6, wherein, the condenser comprises a high temperature condenser and a low temperature condenser, which are sequentially arranged, while the refrigerant from the refrigerant outlet of the external oil separator enters the liquid storage tank after getting condensed by the high temperature condenser and the low temperature condenser sequentially.
 8. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 1, wherein, the spiral evaporator comprises an inlet tube for refrigerant entry and an outlet tube for refrigerant exit, between the inlet tube and outlet tube, a spiral calandria is arranged side by side, both ends of the spiral calandria connect to the inlet tube and outlet tube respectively, wherein, a separation board is arranged in the inlet tube, applied to separating the refrigerant and the oil, which is arranged following the radius of the inlet tube and separating the inlet tube into an upper space and a lower space, which are interconnected.
 9. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 8, wherein, the inlet tube has a set of oil returning pipes arranged, and connects to the compressor through the oil returning pipes, an ejector pump is arranged in the oil returning pipes, and the oil deposited in the input tube enters the compressor following the oil returning pipes through the ejector pump.
 10. The flooded central air conditioning system according to claim 8, wherein, the compressor is arranged more than one, a circulation loop of each compressor is connected in parallel. 